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| In the original creation
of God, the human body and spirit would have grown to maturity
in parallel, within the same time period, so that there
would exist a perfect balance between them. In the world
as it is, however, there is generally a huge discrepancy
between the physical and spiritual development of human
beings. Given the necessary physical elements, all bodies
grow to completion, but spirits, distant from God, are not
able to reach maturity. This discordance between spirit
and body is responsible for the evils of humankind. In a
person with a mature body but immature spirit the natural
order of creation, in which the desires of the mind take
the subject position over the desires of the body, is reversed:
the body, which is ignorant of God and therefore gives the
goals of physical well-being priority over spiritual goals,
initiates actions that are destructive to the spirit. (When
one speaks of the body usurping the subject role of the
mind, in fact one is describing a reversal of priorities
in the mind itself, such that the needs of the physical
being are placed above the needs of the spiritual being,
contrary to the order of God's creation.) In this state,
people lose their value as human beings, since it is the
spirit that makes humans unique and central in creation.
A spiritually sensitive
person can distinguish the level of spiritual maturity in
another person, and even ordinary people can normally sense
the changes in character and attitudes that accompany changes
in the levels of the vitality and spirit elements given
and received between the spirit and body. An insincere smile
cannot disguise a low spirit for long, while the goodness
of even the most humble person will sooner or later shine
through, irrespective of external circumstances.
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Hell, Paradise and
Heaven
The true beauty (or ugliness) of a person's spirit is determined
by his or her relationship with God and truthfulness in word
and deed. This quality is reflected directly in spiritual
appearance: higher spirits are brighter than lower spirits.
Love is the source of spiritual light and warmth. Wherever
human beings make a base for God's love to be present, by
creating four position foundations centered on God, there
is spiritual light and warmth.
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The spiritual level at which
a person begins life in the spiritual world after departing
from the body is determined by the level achieved while on
earth. Upon the death of the body, there is no magical transformation
of character whereby certain chosen individuals are absolved
of their responsibilities and elevated to heaven while others
are damned to lives of eternal misery in hell. Spirits exist
at all levels of growth. Hell is where evil spirits are found,
people who have led lives of selfishness, oppressing others.
Above hell are various spiritual realms for people who have
had faith in God, or who have led conscientious lives, in
spheres grouped according to religion and culture. Thus faithful
Christians can go to Paradise, faithful Muslims to the Garden.
In these realms there are also gradations of spiritual level,
differentiated according to the goodness of character and
righteousness of deeds. The highest realm is heaven where
spirits enjoy the direct dominion of God's love. |
| Since the body is needed to provide
vitality elements for growth of the spirit, the growing process
to spiritual maturity is to be carried out on earth. Men and
women who do not reach the completion stage on earth have
to continue their efforts to grow as disembodied spirits.
This is unimaginably more difficult than growing while on
earth, since on earth an individual has a body to give vitality
elements to his spirit directly. Once detached from his or
her body, a person can gain the benefit of vitality elements
only indirectly, by serving men and women still on earth.
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| In the ideal world of God's creation, there
is no hell, and everyone enjoys life in the beautiful realm
of heaven after reaching oneness with God. Heavenly life would
be achieved on earth and then continued in the spirit world
after the body dies. There would be no need to fear death
(as so many do today because of their distance from God and
ignorance of the spiritual world) because the end of life
on earth would be the beginning of a more beautiful and joyful
existence in the spirit world. At birth, a child enters a
vastly greater and more resplendent world than its mother's
womb. Likewise, when physical death frees a spirit from the
body, the spirit person enters a world of much greater diversity
and beauty than the physical world. However, this spirit world
can be enjoyed only to the extent the spirit person is mature
in love, in the same way that the physical world can be fully
enjoyed only by men and women whose bodies are whole and mature. |
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Summary
To gain an accurate perspective
on life, human beings need to understand the invisible spiritual
world, which is the world they were created to live in forever.
Life on earth is preparation for eternal life in the spiritual
world. Because the body is a microcosm of the physical world
and the spirit a microcosm of the spiritual world, humans stand
at the center of creation. Without harmony between spirit and
body there cannot be harmony between the spiritual and physical
worlds. The growth of the spirit and body to full maturity creates
that harmony, and once the three blessings have been completed
the mission of the body is accomplished. Whatever is left unaccomplished
of this earthly purpose must be completed while in the spiritual
world after the body dies. People on earth and in the spirit
world exist at various levels of maturity. |
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In the world that God originally
created, all men and women were to achieve the perfection of
their spiritual beings while on earth. Why then are people spiritually
incomplete and immature? Why is the history of humankind so
filled with evil of all sorts hatred, enmity, aggression, oppression,
violence and wars - instead of love, as intended by God? Clearly
something has gone seriously wrong. The world as it is does
not resemble the world of God's ideal. Free will is not exercised
responsibly and people do anything to satisfy their selfish
desires, in the process destroying the beauty and goodness of
God's creation.
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